For the first time, the military wing of Gaza rulers Hamas has displayed its weaponry in public, attracting hundreds of Palestinians, including toddlers carrying rocket launchers for pictures.
Members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades interacted with young men and women at the exhibition at Gaza City’s Unknown Soldier’s Square, dressed in black balaclavas and tactical camouflage outfits.
“Resistance is an image and a memory. Take souvenir photos with many of Al-Qassam’s weapons,” the group said in an invitation on social media and posters in mosques.
The occasion was the first time Hamas permitted the public to photograph weapons.
It comes on the heels of the latest escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence, which claimed the lives of 16 Palestinians and four Israelis in the occupied West Bank over six days in late June.
For five days in May, terrorist factions in Gaza and Israel exchanged cross-border fire, killing 34 Palestinians, including six Islamic Jihad commanders, militants from other Palestinian armed groups, and civilians, including children. One Israeli woman was killed.
A variety of locally built missiles, “Shihab” drones, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and Russian-made “Kornet” missiles were among the Hamas weapons on show in Gaza City on Friday.
On Saturday, exhibitions are also planned in the north and center of the Gaza Strip, where it is generally prohibited to approach and photograph military locations.
A poster at the entrance to the Gaza City show welcomed guests, some of whom had come with their families and children, according to an AFP correspondent.
Dozens of Al-Qassam Brigades members were present.
